Alice Petersen

Although Petersen has lived in Canada for two decades, she never forgets her Dunedin origins – she is very happy to have had two stories with Dunedin settings published in the Best Canadian Stories series. Petersen’s first collection All the Voices Cry (Biblioasis, 2012) was awarded the Quebec Writers’ Federation Concordia University First Book Prize.

Introducing herself to NB, Alice says:

I am rather shy about advertising my books in Dunedin, thinking that I have been away too long and no one will remember me anyway, but I really do think and write about Dunedin quite often, just from far away (I am currently at work on a collection of Dunedin-only stories).

It gives me a kick to see Dunedin stories in Canadian books! Literature crosses borders all the time!

I have been so excited to see that Dunedin got UNESCO City of Literature status - I am happy to think that Dunedin/Canadian writers fit in somewhere in the grand scheme.

Worldly Goods

An old record player; an unposted letter; a pair of pearl earrings never purchased; a badly written poem from the woman you love: tokens, gifts, and objects lost or left behind, desired or not wanted at all are the starting points for the stories in Worldly Goods, a new collection by Alice Petersen. The stories reveal that ownership is more than possession, for Petersen shows how small objects stand as markers of our attempts to communicate with each other.

Praise for Alice Petersen and All the Voices Cry

“Alice Petersen writes as eloquently about the natural world as she does about the world of human emotion and desire. This is a wise and impressive collection of stories.”—David Bezmozgis, author of The Free World.

“Finely crafted and pared down to their bare essentials … These are stories that work on multiple levels, and continue to divulge their secrets after several rereadings.”—Quill & Quire

“Among the book’s pleasures are bursts of descriptive panache.”—Globe & Mail

“Alice Petersen’s All the Voices Cry is masterful and potent—incredibly satisfying for a reader.”—Kathleen Winter, author of Annabel

About Alice Petersen

Alice Petersen’s first short story collection, All the Voices Cry (Biblioasis, 2012) was awarded the Quebec Writers’ Federation Concordia University First Book Prize. Petersen’s stories have variously been shortlisted for the CBC Literary awards, The Journey Prize and the Metcalf Rooke Award for fiction. Her work has appeared in The Journey Prize Anthology and Best Canadian Stories. Originally from New Zealand, Alice Petersen has spent the last two decades living in Canada.